Randy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and likely will continue doing so until at least 2020.

Top 100 ‘All-Time’ Players

Here are the 100 players with the most career Box-Toppers points since record keeping began in 1995. Players are listed in order of their career Box-Toppers point total. Also shown is their Box-Toppers point total for 2017 and their career ranking in Box-Toppers points at the end of the 2016 season.

Johnson earned 278.8 Box-Toppers points from the time Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995 until he ended his career in 2009.

The most likely rival to Johnson’s throne at the moment is Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw who has 206.8 career Box-Toppers points. Kershaw earned 23.1 points during 2016, rising from sixth to third place in rankings. Over the past seven seasons, Kershaw has earned an average of 24.8 Box-Toppers points per year. If he were to continue that torrid pace, he would catch Johnson’s career total in 2020.

But even if Kershaw reaches that 278.8 total, he still wouldn’t match Johnson’s actual career total. Since Box-Toppers didn’t track Johnson’s career from 1988 to 1994, he would likely have many more career Box-Toppers points. A rough projection puts his actual career Box-Toppers point total at about 380. Kershaw would need at least seven more seasons at his current average to reach that total.

Kershaw has earned 20 or more Box-Toppers points for seven straight seasons, which breaks Johnson’s record of six straight seasons with 20 or more points. Kershaw has earned 20 or more points each season from 2011 to 2017. Johnson earned 20 or more points each season from 1997 to 2002. Though Kershaw’s streak is seven seasons, his accumulated Box-Toppers point total is less than the total Johnson earned in his six-year streak. Kershaw has 173.3 in his seven-year streak; Johnson had 177.7 in his six-year streak.

Kershaw also passed Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia to take the career points lead among active players in 2017.

Box-Toppers points are a measure of how much a player provides key contributions to his team’s wins. Specifically, Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.

The chart here shows the rankings of the top 100 players since record keeping began in 1995, along with their career Box-Toppers point total and, where applicable, their Box-Toppers points for 2017. The chart also shows each player’s roster status as of the end of the 2017 season and players’ rank in career Box-Toppers points at the end of the 2016 season, to show their rise or fall in rankings since last season.

Notables

Some notable players on the top 100 list:

2. Pedro Martinez ranks second with 244.8 Box-Toppers points. If Martinez’ entire pitching career were tracked from 1992, rough projections put his career Box-Toppers total at 270.

4. Curt Schilling is the highest-ranked retired player on Box-Toppers career points list who is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He has 194.1 points. If Schilling’s entire pitching career were tracked from 1988, rough projections put his career Box-Toppers point total at 232. Schilling slipped to fourth place on Box-Toppers “all-time” list this year after being passed by Kershaw. He had held the third-place spot for nearly 16 years, from 2001 to 2017.

8. Zack Greinke of the Diamondbacks rose into the top 10 career Box-Toppers points list in 2017, rising from 15th at the end of 2016, with 176.2 points. Greinke earned 20.1 points in 2017, eighth among all players and fourth among National League pitchers.

10. Retired pitcher Roy Halladay slipped from eighth to 10th this season with 170.7 career Box-Toppers points. Halladay was killed in the plane he was piloting Nov. 7 at the age of 40.

Logjam of 5 new 150-point club members

There is a logjam of five players in the top 21 on the “all-time” list who this year passed 150.0 career points and who are now all within 3.5 points of each other. The five increased the “150.0-point club” from 18 players (since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began) to 23, a 28-percent increase in just one season. Those five are:

Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, ranks 16th with 156.7 Box-Toppers points. Scherzer earned 25.0 points in 2017 (second among all players) and had the fifth-biggest rise up the career points top 100, rising 15 spots from 31st at the end of 2016. Scherzer reached 150.0 Box-Toppers points on July 15 and was the second of the five to reach that mark.

Justin Verlander, who pitched for the Tigers and the Astros this year, ranks 18th with 154.0 points. He earned 14.7 in 2017 (sixth among American League pitchers) and rose 10 spots in “all-time” rankings, from 28th at the end of 2016. Verlander reached 150.0 Box-Toppers points on Sept. 12, the last of the five to reach that mark, when he was with the Astros.

Cubs pitcher Jon Lester ranks 19th with 153.9 points. He earned 10.7 in 2017 (16th among NL pitchers) and rose seven spots in “all-time” rankings, from 26th at the end of 2016. Lester reached 150.0 Box-Toppers points on July 17, the third of the five to reach that mark.

Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels ranks 20th with 153.4 points. He earned 9.4 in 2017 (14th among AL pitchers) and rose five spots in “all-time” rankings, from 25th at the end of 2016. Hamels reached 150.0 Box-Toppers points on Aug. 5, the fourth of the five to reach that mark.

Bartolo Colon, who pitched for the Braves and Twins this season, ranks 21st with 153.2 points. He earned 4.7 points in 2017 (59th among AL pitchers) and actually fell one spot from the end of 2016, when he ranked 20th (however, he ranked as high as 19th during the season). Though Colon is the lowest ranked of the five, he was the first to reach 150.0 Box-Toppers points, doing so on April 16.

Rising and falling

These four players made the biggest jump up the career Box-Toppers points list this year:

Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale rose 53 spots, more than any other player, from 108th at the end of 2016 to 55th at the end of 2017. Sale has 111.5 career Box-Toppers points, earning 25.1 in 2017 to lead all players.

Three retired players had the biggest drop down the list, as they were passed by the most players rising up the list in 2017. Each fell seven spots:

Paul Konerko, with 100.7 career points, fell from 72nd to 79th.

Jeff Bagwell, with 100.4 career points, fell from 73rd to 80th.

Larry Walker, with 100.1 career points, fell from 74th to 81st.

Top 100 for 2017 & ‘All-time’

There are 11 players on the “all-time” top 100 who also appeared in Box-Toppers top 100 player list for 2017. They are shown in the chart below, listed in order by their Box-Toppers career player ranking.

Those 11 players include the top four players on the 2017 list—Sale, Scherzer, Kershaw and Strasburg. The 11 players also include three in the “all-time” top 10—Kershaw, Sabathia and Greinke. Only two players—Kershaw and Greinke—are in the top 10 in both the 2017 and “all-time” lists: Kershaw ranks third in both lists and Greinke ranks eighth in both lists. The three players who joined the “all-time” top 100 during 2017 are also among the 11 players on both top 100 lists—Sale, Strasburg and Gonzalez.

Breakdown: Active vs. Inactive

Of the 100 players on the “all-time” list, 71 of them ended the season either retired (66), listed as a free agent (four) or were released by their team (one, Alex Rodriguez by the Yankees in 2016). Two additional players on the list announced their intention to retire after the 2017 season: Carlos Beltran of the Astros (108.6 career points, 60th among all players, 18th among all batters) and Giants pitcher Matt Cain (100.7 career points, 78th among all players, 53rd among all pitchers).

There is a net gain of two inactive players on the “all-time” top 100 list since last year. At the end of the 2016 season, there were 69 inactive players and 31 active players.

The highest profile free agent player is pitcher Johan Santana, who with 166.6 Box-Toppers points ranks 12th on the “all-time” list. Santana, 38, has made several attempts to come back from injury but hasn’t played in the Majors since 2012 with the Mets. Since Santana has been out of baseball for five years, he is listed for the first time on the 2018 Hall of Fame ballot and is eligible for induction next year.

With 71 players inactive at the end of 2017, only 29 players on the list were active this past season. Only two did not earn any Box-Toppers points in 2017:

Dodgers pitcher Scott Kazmir, ranked 68th with 105.1 career points. Kazmir, 33, was injured in 2017 and did not play in the majors.

Ryan Howard of the Rockies, ranked 83rd with 98.7 career points. Howard, a mainstay of the Phillies from 2005 to 2016, started 2017 with the Braves before being released and signed to a minor league deal by the Rockies. Since the end of the season, Howard, 38, has elected free agency.

Top teams

Three teams each have three players on the “all-time” top 100 list, most of any team:

The Washington Nationals with Scherzer (16th with 156.7), Strasburg (66th with 105.4) and Gonzalez (87th with 96.2).

The San Francisco Giants with pitchers Madison Bumgarner (63rd with 107.7), Johnny Cueto (72nd with 101.8) and Matt Cain (78th with 100.7).

Last year, the Giants had four players among the top 100, most of any team—Bumgarner, Cueto and Cain, plus pitcher Jake Peavy, now a free agent (29th with 141.8).

Interestingly, though the Giants have three players in the top 100, none of the three did particularly well this season and have a combined 2017 Box-Toppers point total of 5.0 (Bumgarner and Cueto each earned 2.0 and Cain earned 1.0). Compare that to the combined totals for the three Nationals players (57.2) or the three Astros players (20.4) on the list.

Five teams each have two players on the “all-time” career top 100 list—the Red Sox, Cubs, Dodgers, Twins and Rangers. Nine other teams have one player each. Thirteen teams are unrepresented on the list.

Breakdown by position

Pitchers outnumber batters on the “all-time” list. There are 60 pitchers and 40 batters. (On the top 100 list for 2017, pitchers outnumber batters, 63 to 37.)

Here is a breakdown of players by their primary position on the “all-time” list:

57—Starting pitcher

16—Outfield (5 CF, 5 LF, 6 RF)

10—First base

6—Third base

5—Designated hitter

3—Closing pitcher

1—Second base

1—Catcher

1—Shortstop

Last year, there were 59 pitchers and 41 batters on the top 100 list. But with three players rising onto the list this year (all pitchers) displacing two pitchers and one batter (Raul Ibanez), pitchers picked up one net spot.

Box-Toppers methodology

Keep in mind that these are only statistics since 1995. For many players who debuted before then (such as Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux), their career Box-Toppers totals would likely be far higher if the years before 1995 were tracked. On the other hand, for a player like Chipper Jones (ranked 24th), Box-Toppers covers virtually his entire career—he only played in eight games before 1995, so Box-Toppers covers 2,491 games of his 2,499-game career.

If you note how the names are listed in the chart—some all lowercase, some properly capitalized, some with numbers after them—the inconsistencies might make your inner copy editor cringe. But there is an unintentional method to this madness. In early days of keeping the Box-Toppers database from 1995 to 1997, names were inputted into a slow-functioning computer as quickly as was then possible, often with no capitalization—Box-Toppers' e.e. cummings phase, if you will. In about 1997, names were pretty consistently properly capitalized. And in 1998, numbers were added at the ends of names to denote their order of first appearance in the Box-Toppers database (the first time they earned Player of the Game).

So today, when you see player names like "rivera, mariano," (now ranked 38th) you'll know that Rivera first appeared early in Box-Toppers history (in his case, the first year, 1995). "Ortiz, David," (properly capitalized) made his Box-Toppers debut in 1997 (now ranked 28th). And "Helton, Todd 1060," was one of the first players with the debut order number appended, when he first appeared in 1998 (now ranked 45th).

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(Editor’s note: In the chart are references to teams “ana al” and “fla nl,” referring to the Angels and the Marlins. We realize those teams are now known as Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) and the Miami Marlins, but we keep the old abbreviations around since those name changes were largely for marketing or political purposes and involved no substantial change in the actual geography of the team. Plus, change is hard.)

About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.

Overlapping players

Here are the 11 players who are on both the Box-Toppers’ top 100 list of “all-time” (above) and the Box-Toppers top 100 list for the 2017 season. Players are listed here in order of career Box-Toppers points with their predominant position played during the 2017 season and the team with which they finished the 2017 season. Shown are their career Box-Toppers point (BTP) total, their rank among players in career points, their Box-Toppers point total for 2017 and their rank among players in 2017.

Box-Toppers

Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.

Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. Players earn Box-Toppers points for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.